Sand Shark - First real outing with it.

[msimpson]

I went to a beach at San Diego bay. I fire up the SS and I get bleep after bleep after bleep. Every few inches had the thing sounding off with a solid repeatable signal. I have to say I was disappointed. Is my detector broken? Well it turns out....no, it is not. There were literally thousands of shards of metal all over the beach. The shards looked like bits of the leaded foil you see on wine bottles. They were tiny and did I mention there were thousands of them? :-) I have no idea how they got there, but the Sand Shark sounded off on every single one of them, no matter how tiny or how deep. The Sand Shark is going to be useless on this beach. I would be digging for an eternity and my only reward would be these tiny metal shards. Wow, the Sand Shark sure can see deep. I would dig 12 inches only to find a tiny bit of shard. The Sand Shark is an amazing detector in it's ability to see through that salt water. But the adage, dig it all would just not work in this situation.

The upside to this story is that I also have a DFX that I went over the dry sand on this beach. It did an excellent job in only giving repeatable signals on coins. It probably didn't see everything in that sand, but I think a discriminating detector is the only device that will work on that beach to find anything worth saving. When I went over the wet portion of the beach, it went totally silent. It couldn't see anything. Not even the tiny leaded shards.

Interesting outing.

[Smudge]

You have just discovered why most PI detectorists do not use their unit on the dry sand: simply too much garbage (kind of a sad commentary on beachgoers, isn't it?).

Most PI users only use their detector in the wet sand or in the surf where the trash content drops off dramatically.

You were wise to convert to your DFX for dry sand hunting, just make sure to get a dust cover if you plan to use it at the beach regularly. Sand and salt will eventually work its way into your unit if you don't.

Good luck!

[Sandman]

Sand Shark is a fantastic unit for the beach as it sees targets that other detectors won't see. Unfortunately most of your targets were trash foil, but it would report on a ring too if it was there. Stick to the wet sand and water and you will soon find gold. I am too old to dig all those trash targets now and like disc so I used a CZ-20 and Excel.

[msimpson]

Sand Shark is a fantastic unit for the beach as it sees targets that other detectors won't see. Unfortunately most of your targets were trash foil, but it would report on a ring too if it was there. Stick to the wet sand and water and you will soon find gold. I am too old to dig all those trash targets now and like disc so I used a CZ-20 and Excel.

I guess what I didn't convey is that I was using the Sand Shark in about two feet of water. The point I was trying to make is that the DFX could not see anything in the water. It went silent, so it was praise for the SS in that it saw many things that the DFX could not. My only gripe is that my fellow humans are pigs. I didn't see the trash in the water, but the SS sure did.

It just proves the point that one detector isn't enough.

M

[EZrider]

I'm with Sandman on this one. Love my CZ I offten find myself wanting a PI machine but don't have cleen enough beaches to use one. I would never be able to move, just stand in one spot and dig.